Modest shower chances through midweek ahead of dry cool front around Friday
Sunday, September 8, 2024
Temperatures are in the mid-sixties under sunny skies late this Sunday morning in Steamboat Springs. Mostly sunny skies with only the slightest chance of a late-day shower will last through the start of the workweek with high temperatures around eighty degrees. Wednesday will see better chances for some afternoon and evening storms thanks to an approaching storm that will weaken as it approaches our area. Winds will pick up on Thursday and Friday ahead of and behind a dry cool front forecast for Friday.
A ridge of high pressure over most of the country is sandwiched between two areas of deep low pressure over the Gulf of Alaska and the Northeast while a much weaker storm is moving across Idaho. The weak storm will flatten the ridge over the Rocky Mountains and introduce a trickle of Pacific moisture which will do little to temper the near eighty-degree high temperatures through Tuesday, several degrees above our average of 76 F. But we should see some increasing afternoon clouds through then with only slight chances of a passing shower.
Unfortunately, the NOAA Smoke plume forecast shows winds rotating around the high to carry some smoke from the Line wildfire in the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles towards and possibly over our area, with hazy skies predicted for Monday. The forecast runs four times a day and extends to forty-eight hours, so check that to see if the hazy skies persist.
By Wednesday, the Gulf of Alaska storm is forecast to deepen as it moves over the Pacific Northwest. Energy ejecting out of the storm is forecast to move overhead on Wednesday bringing better Pacific moisture and good chances for some afternoon and evening storms. High temperatures will drop to several degrees below average thanks to the increasing cloud cover.
By Thursday, the ridge will be considerably weakened as it deflects the storm through Idaho. The Pacific moisture from Wednesday will replaced with dry air from the Desert Southwest as winds increase from the southwest. As mostly sunny skies return, high temperatures will rebound by several degrees from Wednesday.
But the weakened ridge will win this battle as the approaching storm is further deflected into Montana by Friday, dragging a dry cool front through our area sometime between late Thursday and Friday. Breezy and dry weather will make Friday feel like our second fall-like day of the season with high temperatures struggling to reach seventy degrees.
And as usual a day after a cool front, Saturday morning low temperatures will likely be the coolest of the season so far, approaching freezing in the low-lying areas of the Yampa Valley. Next weekend currently looks gorgeous with sunny skies and high temperatures back to average. However, another storm currently near Japan may bring a storm strong enough to defeat the ridge early in the following workweek and bring the first snow of the season to the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort.
Enjoy the late-summer start to the week as the colors of fall are starting to appear in the trees and underbrush around the area, and check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon for more details on the weekend weather and the approaching storm.
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